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Friday, March 27, 2009

Left Unattended

This story happened quite a while ago:

It took about 20 minutes to get a cab on Sunday. The nights this weekend were more profitable I assume, and when this happens it’s a longer wait. I received a trip sheet and roamed the lot searching for the car. I was about to ask DW, but then I saw the car, it had no license plate, I wondered what else it was missing. I returned to my friendly dispatcher and told him I must have been assigned to the wrong cab. Turned out I was off by one number; the car I was looking for was 3 cars down. A new problem presented itself; where was the key? The three of us played communication tag until J figured A had the key, but where was A? J exclaimed that it was not like A to just disappear,

“He never leaves like this.”

I got sort of tense about this, so I thought perhaps I should check the back alley. Perhaps he was lying in a puddle of grease somewhere. To my surprise I saw a Japanese couple embracing in the alley. I returned to the middle of the parking lot perplexed with how this couple had found themselves in such a place far from much of anything. Just one of those mornings that leaves us scratching our heads. By the end of the shift I’d forgotten about the missing gasman, and any other questions I might have had. Yes he was fine, I saw him the next day, or the next week.

Upon returning there was an equally rare dismaying situation. A cab driver’s car was missing. The car that he actually owned and drove to the garage had vanished. We all couldn’t believe it was stolen. During an entire dayshift in a neighborhood where all sorts of commercial vehicles are driving by, how could a car just be stolen? We were all certain he just hadn’t looked hard enough.

“How could someone just steal your car?” Another cab driver exclaimed. “Are you sure you remember where you parked it?”

To which the cabbie replied, “The car is like ten years old, I didn't think somebody would just take it. I left the key inside, I always leave the key inside. That way I never loose it.”

“You WHAT?!” The police pulled in to the lot and the paper work would soon commence. A lesson was learned that day, don't leave the key in your car no matter what it is.